Malawi has been rated the highest on the list of countries that have registered cases of attempted digital fraud.
The development comes after, last year, the country was losing approximately K120 million monthly to mobile money fraud, according to the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra).
According to the TransUnion 2023 State of Omnichannel Fraud Report, which has covered the first half of 2023, the country registered a significant rate of digital fraud attempts, a development that has culminated in financial services and retail sectors registering a rate of 8.7 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.
Telecommunications services came third, at 6.3 percent of the attempts.
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The report further indicates that out of all digital transactions made by consumers in Malawi, 3.5 percent were suspected to be fraudulent attempts in the first half of this year.
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It indicates that the global suspected digital fraud rate stood at 5.3 percent in the first half of 2023, up from 4.5 percent a year ago.
“Even though the [rate] of digital transactions in telecommunications in Malawi during the first half of 2023 declined by 11 percent from the same period in 2022, the rate of suspected digital fraud increased by more than six percentage points year-over-year, signaling clearly that this sector needs to invest in fraud prevention measures,” the report reads.
Recently, Macra revealed that K120 million is lost every month through mobile money fraud, noting that the issue must be addressed collectively and with urgency.
Macra Director General Daud Suleman said in an interview that the wider adoption of digital gadgets means that the appetite for digital crime is also growing.
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“In Malawi, there is a huge surge in usage of digital platforms, especially mobile money, which has grown by 32.7 percent between 2022 and 2023. This increase has been facilitated by the widening and deepened digitalisation across Malawi.
“However, this includes people with low digital literacy and exposure to the new medium,” he said.
Suleman added that the growth of digital payments is a key element of development, but was quick to say players need to join hands to curb the vice and ensure that the country has a safe and secure digital payment environment.
He said digital laws are being reviewed, disclosing that Macra is working on about seven new laws to create a safe and secure digital environment in Malawi.
“Macra is reviewing the Sim card registration [process] and operations to ensure that all Sim cards in use in Malawi are securely locked to deter fraudsters. The communications regulatory body is also introducing a central equipment registry system that will require all handsets [to be] registered before they are used in Malawi,” he said.
Malawi has also rolled out the Malawi CERT, which is the primary go-to digital safety net for the country to ensure that all digital threats are dealt with by skilled digital defensive actors from Malawi.
The development comes at a time Macra and the Ministry of Education are reviewing the public primary and secondary school curricula to include digital literacy and digital citizenship elements so that all children attending public schools can acquire digital literacy skills from an early age.
Suleman also said Macra has completed the child online protection strategy, which is a collaborative effort to ensure that all children in Malawi are protected accordingly.
“The strategy is now at ministry level and we believe [that] its rollout will help create a safe digital environment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Information Communications Technology Association of Malawi President Clarence Gama has called for strict measures to address the problem.
“If we do not regulate our internet, digital fraud will continue to increase. It’s just unfortunate that this is happening to our nation. We need to alert the community on how they should protect themselves from such fraud,” he said.
He said this is a lesson to Malawi to tighten security by putting in place requisite laws.
